Conservation
The Conservation Section is responsible for the preservation of artifacts and archival materials in the collections at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre.
Download the new Conservation Manual for Archaeologists
PDF - 2.1 Mb (Originally Posted: March 2006)
Téléchargez le Manuel de conservation destiné aux archéologues du Nord en français
What is Conservation?
Conservation is defined as action taken to preserve or prolong the life of museum objects or archival materials. Conservation can be divided into two categories:
- Preventive Conservation
- Treatment Conservation
PREVENTIVE CONSERVATION reduces the causes of deterioration by controlling the environment where the material is handled, used, displayed and stored. Controlling light, temperature and humidity prevents problems such as fading in watercolour paintings, cracking of ivory carvings, the splitting of drums skins and mould growth on documents.
TREATMENT CONSERVATION stabilizes objects through physical and chemical means and is done by trained conservators in specially equipped labs.
Artifacts kept in good condition retain more of their cultural value and provide better information to future researchers. Collections must be preserved for interpretation and study by future generations.
